Walter Lacqueur on Europe’s Decline

We are just a short while away from the launch of our new website, and we are holding a sweepstakes to celebrate. You can win your own home bar kit or collections of books on strategy, Asia, and the Middle East. All you have to do is sign up!

Spiegel Online has posted an interview with Walter Lacquer and it’s the most pessimistic thing I’ve read this summer (and I read, think, and write about war all day, so that’s saying something). To say he doesn’t have a rosy view of Europe’s future is an understatement: “Europe will not be buried by ashes, like Pompeii or Herculaneum,” he says, “but Europe is in decline. It’s certainly horrifying to consider its helplessness in the face of the approaching storms. After being the center of world politics for so long, the old continent now runs the risk of becoming a pawn.”

But what of the “soft power” that Europe holds in such high esteem? It’s currency as the home of the Enlightenment, democracy, etc, etc?

Freedom, human rights, social justice are all wonderful, and I don’t want to minimize the achievements of European societies. But a role model? Europe is much too weak to play a civilizing or moral role in world politics. Nice speeches and well-intentioned admonitions carry little weight when made from a position of weakness. In fact, all they do is aggravate China and Russia. Such reproofs are presumptuous, insincere and, unfortunately, often ridiculous. Under the current circumstances, Europe would be well advised to keep a lower profile.

He continues:

Of course, life doesn’t just take place at the top. Being eliminated from the Champions League isn’t the end. But then it might be advisable to somewhat limit the generous distribution of good advice to other countries and not to invoke one’s own achievements as enthusiastically. Constant self-praise could easily become counterproductive, because one’s achievements should never be taken for granted. The EU may survive the current crisis, but what about the next one and the one after that? It is no longer a given that the majority of Europeans want to continue to the end of the path to a political union. The first stabs at moving away from that concept are unmistakable. Nothing is without an alternative in history and politics.

From Around The Web

One Response

Ryan,
Thanks for bringing this article to our attention. Walter Lacqueur is one of the most treasured voices of reason since WWII. His book, World of Secrets: The Uses and Limits of Intelligence, is still the best single book on intelligence available today, despite being published in the 1980s.

Laqueur is correct in his analysis about Europe’s decline. They cannot handle a crisis even when it occurs in their own backyard. Having worn a uniform and carried a gun in Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia in the Yugo Civil War I have some not-so-kind views of European capabilities.

Europe is in trouble. There is a massive division growing between those who believe in the “European Project” and generally tend to be 45 to 50 and older. They will sacrifice most anything to avoid another war – at least as they see it in their minds.

On the other side is the 30 and under crowd. They are educated, in debt and often under/unemployed. They do not want to hear about their grandfather’s wars. They want a job and they see that the bureaucrats/unions/intelligentsia are firmly entrenched and holding on to their privileges and will not address serious concerns. The entrenched powers prefer to paper over the current problems with QE and promises about the future.

To be clear, this is not Euro bashing. Love the place and always look forward to visiting it – but social unrest is coming and the current powers show no clear idea on how to avoid it.

We are just a short while away from the launch of our new website. In celebration, we are holding a sweepstakes. You can win your own home bar kit or collections of books on strategy, Asia, and the Middle East.